Syracuse, NY -- Nancy Larraine Hoffmann wanted more farmers in her New York Senate district a decade ago. But after the Legislature redrew the lines, voters got a district so ridiculous-looking it stands out even in a system known for putting political incumbents ahead of ordinary residents.

Ten years later, there’s still no clear answer as to why a district with roots in the eastern side of Syracuse and in Onondaga and Madison counties suddenly sprung a leak westward, skating across a corner of Auburn and up a skinny ladder of towns in Cayuga County north to Lake Ontario.

Hoffmann says the boundaries were bent because a wealthy GOP supporter wanted last-minute changes. Few others remember it that way. They say Hoffmann asked for more farmers and got them.

This is New York redistricting, a tradition in which backroom decisions make it easy for politicians to pick voters rather than the other way around.

Years after the maps were printed, petitions passed and votes counted — and a new senator was even elected — there’s still a mystery about why the 49th District now stretches across four counties and four cities to get 300,000 or so people to make the seat whole.

But what is known is this: The same kind of thing is likely to happen again in coming months as the Legislature begins the once-a-decade redrawing of its own political boundaries to protect lawmakers in office.

“You just become a pawn in the whole process,” Cayuga County Democratic Chairwoman Kate Lacey said about her county’s piece of the 49th District. “You don’t have any say.”

Reform unlikely in 2011

Lacey, who’s been in politics for four decades, understands the complications that come with putting together a puzzle of tiny election districts that must follow federal guidelines and stand up to court challenges.

In the past, state legislators have drawn districts with populations that differ by tens of thousands of voters. The variance, some say, is necessary. By law, counties and cities can be split up, while towns cannot. Small groups of people with common races, backgrounds or industries must be kept together to help them compete against majorities.

But that population wiggle room also allows each party to pack in more districts to keep control of each legislative chamber. The Democratic Assembly ends up with extra Downstate lawmakers and the Republican Senate with extra Upstate seats.

Federal law requires states to redraw their districts before the 2012 elections. Even with powerful people calling for reform, it might not happen soon.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat in his first year, wants to create an independent commission to recommend maps to the lawmakers for approval and has threatened to veto anything similar to the current system. But the governor also postponed the battle. Cuomo left redistricting reform out of his current push to get certain legislation through Albany before the session ends June 20.

Minority Assembly Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, says he thinks redistricting will happen next year — an election year for all state lawmakers.

Longtime supporters of redistricting reform, like Sen. David Valesky who now represents the 49th Senate District, say it would put the selection process back in the hands of voters. Critics, such as Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, question whether an independent commission would really be free of ideological influence.

Even groups calling for change acknowledge it’s impossible to wipe the process clean of back-door maneuvering. “You never can really take the politics out of it,” said Dick Dadey, the executive director of Citizens Union, a group advocating for redistricting reform.

And that’s why, some say, the system will never improve.

“I just can’t imagine they’ll give this up to an independent commission,” said Jeff Stonecash, a political science professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. “They are going to fight tooth and nail.”

Ten years ago

In 2001, Hoffmann was a veteran politician with a new political party. The Democrat-turned-Republican, who raises beef cattle in southern Onondaga County, hoped to pick up more farmers from nearby Cortland County to keep her district compact.

But those aren’t the farmers Hoffmann got. Many elected officials and political insiders say it was Hoffmann’s request for farmers that unfurled the district into Cayuga County.

But Hoffman says Senate leaders originally planned to add the Oneida County town of Verona — which includes the Turning Stone Casino — into the 49th Senate District until the Oneida Indian Nation objected. “It was no secret that Ray Halbritter did not want me to represent that district,” Hoffmann said this May.

Hoffmann said she learned of that late objection from then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno when she asked why the district went westward into Cayuga County.

In 2002, about two weeks after the maps became public, the Oneida Indian Nation donated $30,000 to a Republican-controlled Senate campaign committee. All told, the Oneida Nation has given a little more than $70,000 to a Senate Republican campaign committee during the past decade.

“While we’re flattered that Senator Hoffman views the Oneida Nation as having such influence as to change statewide electoral districts, the reality is her constituents voted her out of office due to her very poor representation of our community,” Oneida Indian spokesman Mark Emery said.

Hoffmann lost the district to Valesky in 2004. These days, Valesky regularly attends events in Auburn. But his constituents farther north in Cayuga County are less likely to see him, locals say. “We haven’t seen him,” said Robert Ingham, the supervisor for Victory, just a few miles shy of Lake Ontario.

Ingham, a Republican in office for the past 18 months, doesn’t fault Valesky, a Democrat, for his lack of visits and adds the senator is readily available by phone or email. Ingham said he’s satisfied with the senator’s attention to Victory, a dairy and cash crop town where people with indoor jobs either work at the school district or commute to Syracuse or Rochester.

“We’re all going in 14 different directions,” Ingham said.

The supervisor could be describing New York redistricting. That’s not how they do it in Iowa.

Iowa's example

Since 1981, Iowa has taken as much politics out of redistricting as possible. There, a court case prompted Iowa officials to take the work out of the hands of lawmakers and put it into the state’s Legislative Services Agency, a nonpartisan research office that operates year-round to help lawmakers write bills and analyze data.

When it comes time to redistrict, the agency doesn’t look at voter turnout or incumbents’ parties. It simply dumps Census population data into computer software that draws 100 House and 50 Senate districts as evenly as possible. “We don’t look at voter enrollment at all,” said Ed Cook, of the agency.

The Iowa Legislature can either approve the agency’s plan, or send it back to the agency for another draft. But lawmakers can’t compare the plans and select the one that might best suit individual politicians. If the drafting process goes on too long, Iowa’s top court automatically takes over, something that hasn’t happened in the last four rounds.

Imitating Iowa is hard. It’s a square state with a fairly homogeneous population, two things New York is not, Cook and others admit. And square, neat districts don’t always mean they are fair. Part of the challenge is keeping together communities of interest — such as groups of immigrants or industries — so they will have a stronger voice in government.

“A funny shape doesn’t necessarily mean gerrymandering,” said Erika Wood, the deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, which supports reform.

But Iowa does have something New York doesn’t. It has a Legislature willing to accept the fate of redistricting rather than trying to control the district lines. The turnover rate proves it. Ten years ago, half of Iowa’s senators were paired up in the same districts. More than a third of Iowa’s House members faced running against another incumbent.

“A lot of states have interest in it,” Cook said of Iowa’s unique redistricting outcomes. “Ultimately, it’s got to be a big leap of faith by the majority party.”

The New York way

New Yorkers already pay for a redistricting system outside of the Legislature’s back-room deals. The state’s Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment has a New York City office and $7.4 million available to pay for this round of redistricting.

Every 10 years, three Democrats and three Republicans are appointed by the leadership in the Assembly and Senate — four lawmakers and two staffers — to serve on the task force’s board.

A decade ago, at the task force’s first public meeting, members talked about needing vote counts from recent elections to do their work. They said the voting history was needed to comply with redistricting guidelines.

Studying old voting history helps sitting lawmakers secure future victories, said Robert Spitzer, a State University of New York at Cortland professor of political science. “I can think of no other reason for wanting to see that data,” Spitzer said.

Even if Cuomo’s proposal passes — whether the commission is truly independent or not — the Legislature must by law vote on the maps. “Ultimately, whether the task force does the work and drawing the plans, or it’s some other entity, the Legislature will have to adopt the report,” said Assemblyman Bob Oaks, R-Macedon, one of the new members of the task force.

But that public vote could be a blatant — and maybe even embarrassing — reminder of what lawmakers are trying to protect. “If they override it, they’ll look very self-centered,” said Andrew Beveridge, a professor at Queens College who has helped challenge previous redistricting maps in court.

Whatever comes of the reform proposal, Cayuga County is hoping for something a little more sensible after the maps are redrawn this time. Right now, its 80,000 residents are represented by three assemblymen, two state senators and two members of Congress, said Lacey, the Democratic county chairwoman. “We’re just kind of a sacrificial county,” she said.